Researchers create measures to monitor development of tots with disabilities

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Picking out new toys, playing with children, and watching their progress is all in a day’s work for Gayle Luze and Kere Hughes, two assistant professors in human development and family sciences (HDFS). It also part of their latest project funded by the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences.

 

Luze and Hughes have teamed up to apply Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) to assessing Iowa children with disabilities. IGDIs, developed at Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at the University of Kansas, is an assessment system used with children ages birth to 3 years to measure their development. Each IGDI took two years to develop: During the first year, researchers tried out the new toys with children and the second year was spent doing a longitudinal study tracking the child’s growth and development.

 

What makes IGDIs different from other assessments is its approach to monitoring development and progress in children with disabilities or those who are at risk. Instead of yearly evaluations, IGDI assessments measure the growth of a child related to learning and intervention services every month. The results are graphed and then given to parents in an easy-to-interpret format.

 

“When we do an assessment, it’s a measure of communication, motor, social, and problem-solving skills during the interaction time,” Luze said. “Parents can be a part of this just by playing with their child and their toys. The interactions elicit the behaviors we’re looking for. Parents can also observe the child and specialists can tell them what skills they’re looking for. When parents see the results in a graph, it makes a lot of sense.”

 

In this study, five graduate students from HDFS are trained as IGDI coaches, and collaborate with Area Education Agencies (AEA), where they work in teams with physical therapists, early childhood specialists, and school social workers who administer IGDIs to young children. As coaches, the Iowa State students provide information, encourage others, and help them learn this teaching method.

 

Currently, Luze and Hughes are working with three interventionists at the Fort Dodge AEA. Their goal is to start small, and expand over the next three years to a maximum of 16 teams (early intervention teachers, physical therapists, speech and language pathologists, social workers, and other specialists) with three families each. They would like to provide IGDI information to others through brochures and training modules after the grant project is complete. In the meantime, parents and educators can receive information at state and national conferences.

 

“Interested parents can attend conferences, read journal articles, and visit our web site to learn more about IGDIs,” Luze said. “There are conferences, such as the Division for Early Childhood Conference, where part of it is designed to serve researchers, families, and practitioners.” 

 

While specialists and teams can provide much-needed guidance and help for children with disabilities, Hughes said it’s important to remember the positive impact family has on a child’s growth through interaction and personal learning.

 

“IGDIs are an assessment, not an intervention,” Hughes said. “The intervention is still the collaboration between specialists and the family and the learning opportunities a child receives through that interaction. Children learn the best through positive experiences with a parent as their first teacher.”

 

For more information on the IDGI grant project, contact Gayle Luze at (515) 294-4045 or gluze@iastate.edu or contact Kere Hughes at (515) 294-8441 or kereh@iastate.edu.